High Sierra Topix

After searching the YNP regs and this site, I'm pretty sure that I know the answer to this question, but I was hoping to confirm. Is there any legal camping at any of the lakes on the east side of the Kuna Crest, i.e. Kuna Lake, Bingaman Lake, or Helen Lake? It seems that relaxing exploration of this area is forbidden.

That's right. You have to get out of the park and into the Ansel Adams Wilderness, or over the west side of the ridge to camp. There are some tiny lakes up at the headwaters of Kuna Creek on the West side that might work...but it's over a ridge from the area you mention.

I did a weekend trip up Kuna Crest and camped on the crest itself, cooking dinner down at Helen Lake and then carried water up for the night and breakfast. Then I walked x-c on the crest dropping past Bingaman Lake and out. You can also go south of Lake Helen- nice little ponds for water on the other side and legal. Or drop from the crest on the other (west) side, south to some little lakes on that side, far above the Lyle Fork.

Legality aside, you could stealth camp at Bingaman or Kuna and nobody would know the difference.

What I would do is;

Day 1 trail to a camp over the pass.
Day 2 trail to fish Alger Lakes
Day 3 x-c to Lost Lakes to fish
Day 4 over a small pass and north up onto Kuna Crest, carry water the last bit
Day 5 out on the crest
or
Day 2 day hike to Alger Lakes
Day 3 explore the lakes and then hop up to the Crest to camp.
Day 4 out along the crest

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:41 pm You can also go over the pass south of Lake Helen- nice little ponds for water on the other side and legal. Or drop from the crest on the other side, south to some little lakes on that side.

Exactly. Those are the ones I referenced in my post, in the headwaters of Kuna Creek.